Tip 2 on Sound Linking

Teacher: Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today's tip is on sound linking.

Teacher: Remember that although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English does not have pauses after every word. As a matter of fact, long strings of words are all linked together. And it is this linking which often makes it difficult for learners of English to understand native speaker's talking.

Teacher: Today's tip is to notice how the H sound h is often dropped in personal pronouns such as He, Him, His, and Her. And when it is dropped, what is left is a vowel sound and the vowel sound is always linked to the proceeding word.

Teacher: Let's look at an example. Give her a book, giver a book, notice how the H is dropped and how give her becomes giver. Look at another example, Tell him to ask her, tell him to ask her, tell him to ask her. Did you notice that tell him became tellim and ask her became asker? This happens very frequently in spoken English, especially when he follows an auxiliary verb.

Teacher: For example, what will he do becomes what wille do. Where will he go becomes where wille go. When will he come becomes when wille come. Who will he meet becomes who wille meet. How will he know becomes how wille know. Has he gone becomes hase gone. Had he done it before becomes hade done it before. Must he go becomes muste go. Can he do it becomes cane do it. Should he leave becomes shoulde leave.

Teacher: It's important to accustom yourself to the dropped H sound in sound linking. This has been today's daily tip. Tune in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.